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External Polymorphism
Initially described in note [8], external polymorphism is a design pattern based on Adapter (see note [4]) that demonstrates almost all the features of a signature. Still based on ABCs, it allows decoupling between interface and implementation and signature-based polymorphism. There is a bonus, too: methods with different signatures can be adapted to respond to the same interface call.
The following example illustrates the technique (refer to file 6.h):
struct IPrintable
{
virtual void print(const char* ) = 0;
};
struct Printer
{
void print()
{
std::cout << "print internal printJob" << std::endl;
}
};
struct Fax
{
void fax(const char* something)
{
std::cout << "fax & print " << something << std::endl;
}
};
template <class T>
void adapt( T* t, const char* something)
{
t->print(something);
}
template <>
void adapt<Fax>( Fax* t, const char* something)
{
t->fax(something);
}
template <>
void adapt<Printer>( Printer* t, const char* something)
{
t->print();
}
template <class T>
struct PrintableAdapter : IPrintable
{
PrintableAdapter(T* t) : t_(t){}
virtual void print(const char* something)
{
adapt(t_, something);
}
private:
T* t_;
};
void test()
{
Fax f;
PrintableAdapter<Fax> paf(&f);
IPrintable* p = &paf;
p->print("something");
Printer pr;
PrintableAdapter<Printer> pap(&pr);
p = &pap;
p->print(0);
}
IPrintable is the signature, implemented as an ABC. Instead of inheriting from IPrintable, as is customary in subtype polymorphic design, Fax and Printer are plain, independent classes with different implicit interfaces. There is another class, a PrintableAdapter, which publicly inherits IPrintable and keeps the address of the adaptee of a generic type. As a virtual function cannot be a point of specialization, a free function, adapt(), is used as the real adapter, being specialized for types having methods different from what IPrintable expects. For example, Fax::fax() has the right signature but the wrong name and Printer::print() is the other way around. On the other hand, any attempt to instantiate PrintableAdapter with non-conformant class interfaces fails at compile-time.
This method has the advantage of being simple and easy to be optimized by the compiler (all the calls, except the virtual one, are being inlined).
On the downside, compared with signature-based interfaces:
- The ABC interface is fixed and cannot expose a variable number of methods.
- The performance might be diminished due to the virtual call.